Batching does not behave like it did in Vanilla

[Reikimi-heartseeker]

I want to preface by saying that I am aware this is a contentious issue, I do not want to raise negative emotion by bringing this up, merely to try to shed light on outstanding issues with Classic WoW.

Many batching interactions that occur now certainly occurred in Vanilla. NPC’s hitting you after a stun, tanks dying after getting a heal, Rogues being hit out of Vanish, these are all gameplay interactions that definitely happened with original batching.

But, there are many interactions that behave differently in Classic, because the code has not been recreated properly. The most egregious example I can think of is issues with pets and feign death. Delays to pet commands are excessive in Classic; pet responsiveness was certainly higher in Vanilla. With feign death, a delay to dropping combat is also excessive, and again, was not noticeable in Vanilla (though feign death certainly bugged out sometimes!). There are countless other examples of bizarre batching interactions that did not used to exist but I want to keep it brief.

The issue is that in original Vanilla, certain commands/actions, spells, and effects were put on a high priority batch. These were intended to be processed quickly, so that certain fundamental gameplay interactions did not feel sluggish.

In Classic, it appears as though much of this code has been inaccurately emulated. This is a result of the batching being BFA batches scaled up, rather than using the original code. Blizzard attempted to fill in the rest of the code for how batching worked… but got many things wrong.

The result of this is what many players report as something feeling “not right” about how Classic WoW plays compared to memory. It is many small interactions being put on a long batch, that were never intended to be long batched in the first place.

I hope for some positive changes with batching, but my hopes are not high, as we’ve had over a year of Classic and many of the issues with batching simply have not been addressed…

[Graff-nathrezim]

It’s not a contentious issue. In fact, it’s a generally agreed-upon and known fact. These things have been said over and over again on the forums over the last year.

Classic is simply a very poor Vanilla emulation, in many ways.

[Lana-azuresong]

@Reikimi-heartseeker

there are many interactions that behave differently in Classic,

I’m sure you are correct about the differernces you have found. But I disagree with you saying “correctly” and “accurately”, as if every tiniest detail is supposed to match exactly. I don’t think Classic intended to recreate every tiniest detail of Vanilla, so that it was absolutely identical.

I am not sure that is even possible. But (as a software dev) I am sure that doing this would be a TON of work. It is much more work than Blizzard promised to do, when Blizzard agreed to create Classic. Instead Classic is “pretty close”. At least 99.95% of the game matches. You are right that 0.05% is different.

Blizzard only promised to add Classic because they could do that with a relatively small amount of work – much smaller than creating a new expansion – so they could handle 2 projects at once.

If Blizzard had attempted to reproduce precisely every possible detail of Vanilla, that project would have taken much longer and many more devs. We would be expecting Classic to launch in October (not 1 year ago), and Shadowlands would be “some time in 2021”.

[Reikimi-heartseeker]

More than 0.05% is different. The batching issues are affecting fundamental gameplay interactions. I referenced pet commands and feign death (this is already much, much more than 0.05% of the game for Warlocks and Hunters), but almost anything that requires you to place an input experiences a bizarre degree of lag. Buying things from vendors, for example, was never a batched experience.

Again, this affects very fundamental gameplay and it seems like Blizzard didn’t really put much of anything on the priority batches like they are supposed to be.

[Delimicus-heartseeker]

@Reikimi-heartseeker

Buying things from vendors, for example, was never a batched experience.

Joana UNEDITED - 1-6 Durotar - Vanilla WoW 1-60 Speed Run

[Zydax-kromcrush]

Blame the #nochangers. They said pvp would be ruined without it.

[Delphic-kromcrush]

Is this still the reason pet commands delay, don’t activate, path funky, etc?

Controlling a demon works about 90% of the time within about a second after I hit the ability. The other 10% it fails to do what it’s told. Yes, I watch my pet’s Mana and GCD when this funkiness goes down. This is one of the reasons I stopped playing early on at classic launch - come back later and it’s still happening.

Me: SAC!

Voidwalker: Maybe.

[Bankval-netherwind]

Ignore Delimicus trash pally that only picks stuff as it fits his narrative.

Batching does indeed work differently on 1.13 than it did in original vanilla. Since they tried to emulate original batching but obviously could not replicate it 100% identical you end up with some abomination version of it that shows its true colours everytime you get into the fine details of the game (which usually is most noticeable in PvP).

As they explained it themselves:

@Kaivax

There was a single game loop that processed all messages sent and received every server tick. Nowadays, the game processes multiple loops for messages of differing priorities. Spell casts are high priority, and have been for a long time.

For WoW Classic, we’re moving spell casts to a low-priority loop that will cause them to be processed at the frequency that best fits how the game actually played in version 1.12.

Edit: Point being; classic is just another pserver with more acc. security and a 15 bucks a month cost to keep said security. It in no way reflects the original client in any way shape or form.

[Puth-grobbulus]

@Bankval-netherwind

Ignore Delimicus trash pally that only picks stuff as it fits his narrative.

and yet… he posted proof, where’s yours?

@Kaivax

For WoW Classic, we’re moving spell casts to a low-priority loop that will cause them to be processed at the frequency that best fits how the game actually played in version 1.12.

you missed this part of your own quote… this is how spell batching worked

[Bankval-netherwind]

can you read? They literally say that that original vanilla had a single gameloop, while modern wow has multiple gameloops. And instead of having a single gameloop again, they put certain spells on low prio.

I linked a blue post that literally states they do it differently now and you come here defending a random paladin. Either its your own alt del (which btw… ultra sad) or you (puth) need to learn comprehensive reading

[Puth-grobbulus]

thy said IT BEST FITS HOW THE GAME ACTUALLY PLAYED

so if by different, you mean it is not virtually identical, then yes, i suppose its different… but the feeling and the way it acts is exactly the SAME

[Polls-mankrik]

He literally posted a video of Vanilla game-play showing vendor interactions being batched. As if he was trying to claim anything other than “yes, items being vendored in Vanilla were batched too”

[Bankval-netherwind]

@Puth-grobbulus

IT BEST FITS HOW THE GAME ACTUALLY PLAYED

How does that mean = its the same?

It literally means its an emulation of original batching… are you trolling? jesus christ. learn to read my man.

Edit: and no… it just emulates. But the devil is in the details. Nobody says they didnt do a good job. But its not the same. And batching is off. Anyone who played on 1.12 clients that used batching before (pserver scenes) will notice tremendous differences

The batching in 1.13 is off and not the real thing. Why i made the point of it: its a pserver version of vanilla.

[Polls-mankrik]

Yup, his argument is literally “its not the literal exact same lines of code, therefor its garbage!”

[Puth-grobbulus]

@Polls-mankrik

“its not the literal exact same lines of code, therefor its garbage!”

why would anyone would care about the code being exactly the same as long as it feels the same? her arguement doesnt make sense to me… the line of code doesnt matter as long as it is faithful in how it feels

[Bankval-netherwind]

who said garbage? I said they did a good job? are you running 3 different toons agreein with you? you barely read what i post. Wth?

[Polls-mankrik]

As someone who played Vanilla and would lose Nature’s Swiftness+HT macros to old-school batching on a daily basis…Classic batching feels indistinguishable to Vanilla batching.

It is working as intended. People just arn’t used to it and it feels bad to people who are accustomed to a modern tick-rate.

[Puth-grobbulus]

@Polls-mankrik

As someone who played Vanilla and would lose Nature’s Swiftness+HT macros to old-school batching on a daily basis…Classic batching feels indistinguishable to Vanilla batching.

awesome, ty for your honesty and objectiveness.

[Polls-mankrik]

@Bankval-netherwind

who said garbage? I said they did a good job?

@Bankval-netherwind

but obviously could not replicate it 100% identical you end up with some abomination version

If “abomination” means “they did a good job” then…yeah, That is what you said.

[Bankval-netherwind]

You obviously lack the experience to comment on what I mean. As said they emulated it and it works for the most part, but batching isnt working correclty. And your limited PoV and your reluctance to accept that (even in the face of their own bluepost) just shows you either have not played the game in quite some time or lack the knowledge on how batching behaved in original vanilla. I bet you view it from the one class you played and you remember that one thing that never worked. But the devil is in the detail. 1.13 is not 1.12 and it shows. So if people complain about batching and you are not sure for sure, id recommend holding your tounge, since you obviously don’t know what you are talking about